Subject index Crime 9, 16, 31, 37, 40, 47, 72, 88, 164 Healthcare 12, 71, 98, 120 People’s rights 35, 118, 125, 135, 138, 167, 172–3 Philanthropy 24, 60, 77, 116, 150 Population 25, 56, 66–7, 78, 80, 101–02, 117, 126, 130, 152, 157, 165 Slavery 32, 55, 147, 160, 174 Statistics 20, 37, 117, 126, 128, 152 Treatment of the poor 24, 29, 30, 37, 46, 65, 72, 145, 162, 168, 174 Usury and profiteering 15, 28, 59, 95, 104, 121, 158, 174 Welfare 19, 30, 60, 98, 135, 144 Women 5, 54, 120, 137, 146, 172–3
A glance through this catalogue shows that little of what we have experienced in the last 18 months is new. Since time immemorial, the world has suffered plagues, hardship, and restricted freedoms. If we had ample opportunity during the pandemic to learn care, consideration, and kindness, so did our forebears. They witnessed the great plague of London in 1655. They experienced monetary shortages and worried over the morals of usury and profiteering. They discovered the problems of population growth and food shortages, and suggested solutions. The proper role of governments in all this was hotly debated, from the early works of Machiavelli and Thomas Hobbes to the defining texts of liberalism by John Stuart Mill and Friedrich von Hayek. The catalogue contains a rich variety of material showing how humanity has approached welfare issues. William Petty and others pioneered statistical enquiries. Charles Booth and his followers made social surveys of life and labour in London. John Bellers, Thomas Firmin, and Sir Matthew Hale wrote in defence of the poor, and used their wealth and success for philanthropic purposes, an early form of public welfare. Robert Owen was to do the same in the 19th century. Debates about usury and interest-taking have been perennial since Roman times. Buoninsegni, Lessius, Filmer, Bentham, and others discussed best business practice and made arguments for and against excessive profit-making. The profitable business of slavery was similarly debated, with passionate arguments on both sides. Concerns about population increase reached a high point with Malthus’s Essay of 1798. The catalogue includes not only a copy of the first edition of the Essay , but also a good number of replies to and criticisms of it. Authors such as Everett, Godwin, Jarrold, and Place suggested social amelioration of the problem. A superb presentation copy of the much enlarged second edition, pretty much a new work, shows that Malthus too realized that his alarming theory required social remedy. Nineteenth-century social enquiries in Europe and America, new socialist thinking, and the modern science of economics have led to government social reform and the creation of what we now know as the welfare state. Is there still room for improvement? Only time will tell.
Ian Smith: ian@peterharrington.co.uk John Ryan: john@peterharrington.co.uk
Front cover image from William Booth , In Darkest England and the Way Out , item 24 . Design: Nigel Bents
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